The Lagos Art & Books Festival 2024, commonly referred to as LABAF, will run from November 11 – 17 at Freedom Park, Lagos Island. This year’s theme is “Breakout: Hope is a Stubborn Thing.
The Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAF) is an annual arts festival founded in 1999 by the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), a Nigeria-based cultural organisation. Over the years, it has hosted a wide range of activities including musical performances, book readings and launches, film screenings, a publishers’ forum, book and art exhibitions, panel discussions, symposia, cultural showcases, and more. The festival has welcomed many prominent figures from Nigeria and the broader African literary scene.
The maiden edition of the festival was held in November 1999 at Jazz 38’s permanent site in Lekki, Lagos. The idea behind the festival was to commemorate Nigeria’s return to democracy after more than three decades of military regimes and to have a festival that would re-energise the scene and refocus both the young and old, especially the book-reading culture, which was gradually dying.
LABAF, which is also known as biggest culture picnic on the continent, is a plethora of different activities, some fun-filled while some are deeply intellectual purpose is to cultivate ad revive the reading culture that is on a steady decline, the active promotion of culture and the need to keep encouraging speaking and writing in our indigenous languages. The festival is promoted not just to sell books but promote arts and the impact of arts and books on society in every strata, spectrum and demography. Several writing and reading competitions are promoted by LABAF.
For the 2024 festival which is the 26th edition, the organizers are set to offer a diverse lineup of events that will feature book displays, exhibitions, live music, and theatrical performances. Its dedication to encouraging meaningful interactions with literature is evident in its discussion panels, which thoroughly examine the highlighted works beyond the prominence of their authors. This edition of the festival will also honor the distinguished scholar and Nobel Prize winner, Prof. Wole Soyinka, who turned 90 on July 13. His enduring commitment to exploring the potential of the Nigerian project aligns beautifully with CORA’s objectives and the festival’s theme, “Breakout: Hope is a Stubborn Thing,” celebrating resilience and the unyielding human spirit. The festival will also include the award of grand prize to the winner of the Kayode Aderinokun Poetry prize.
